Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Change petition in place to remove all GC voices from Twitter

117 replies

MummBraTheEverLeaking · 17/02/2021 23:33

Wondered why 'transphobia' was trending on twitter, saw lots of links to a petition basically calling ANY gender critical account to be booted off Twitter!!

Words of the petition below (and it is VERY wordy!) Apparently if you're GC in the UK on twitter you've got hundreds of fake accounts on the go and are part of a huge sinister network too! Must have missed my invite to that then Grin

They're most likely shouting into the void but if Twitter even gives this a nod and it ends up going the way of reddit (GC = no, some fucked up porn discussions = a ok) I blummin despair.

Twitter,

Over the last year the world has become a hotbed of transphobia, largely as a result of your platform and a lack of moderation and oversight.We are a group of Transgender people and their allies and today we are here to ask you to put an end to this.

Many Transgender people are leaving twitter as we cannot bare the Hatred and abuse that is directed at us on your platform from so called “Gender Critical” people. The latest to leave being Munroe Bergdorf, one of the most visible and respected members of our community.

Transphobic groups have been growing rapidly on your platform, many of them originating in the UK for the purpose of harassing our media, politics, education and healthcare influencers. They have now created a large network of fake accounts with which to spread their hate throughout the rest of the world. They have been allowed to attack and denigrate us. They have been allowed to stir up hatred. They have been allowed to openly mock us. Twitter has largely ignored the rising tide of hatred directed at our community from your platform.

During this pandemic Transphobic groups have flourished on twitter, making an already difficult situation for our small community even harder. This is no longer an issue of free speech, this is no longer a political debate, this is no longer a disagreement of ideas, this is an assault on our community and our lives that is severely affecting our health, our happiness and our wellbeing every single day.

The effect’s on the mental health of the Transgender population around the world during the pandemic are staggering. Wait times on the NHS in Britain have been extended up to five years. Youth must now go to court in order to receive life saving puberty blockers. The media has become so hostile that many of us feel destitute. This is largely a direct result of your inability to remove this disinformation and hatred campaign from your platform. Our small community is being decimated by the relentless bullying on social media by “Gender Criticals", besetting a barrage of attacks upon our community while we have no recourse of protest during lockdown. These disagreements have now spilled from twitter onto the streets of our cities, with Transphobic graffiti and signs being placed in public bathrooms, changing rooms, and on streets not just in the UK, but internationally - all clearly using the language of this twitter mob. This hatred is bleeding into and now seeding itself in most other western countries. We cannot let this hatred keep spreading.

These groups have created a coded language in order to mask their transphobic bigotry in plain sight and avoid the ban hammer. So far it has worked exceedingly well in the UK. We stand accused of being misogynists and homophobes simply for being who we are. This is a recurring theme among these groups, spouting bigotry while simultaneously launching claims that we are in fact the bigots simply for being ourselves. They may call themselves Gender critical but how is this any different from Race realist if the outcome of their hatred, however coded it may be, is the same. They have manufactured a climate of hatred and disgust, pitting feminism and gay rights against the Transgender community in an attempt to tear our communities apart and isolate us. They bully us. They relentlessly hound anybody who so much as mentions our community without disparagement. They advocate for conversion therapy for trans youth. They claim we are mentally ill and confused. They call our life saving surgery mutilation. They use the names of our past lives against us. They seek to agitate by referring to us by pronouns they know will upset us. They search for photos of before our transitions that they can laugh at and degrade us with. They spread disinformation and lies about our community, framing us as child abusers, perverts and sexual predators. They claim we are part of a conspiracy theory, manufactured by large corporations to sell medicine. They eviscerate any trace of us from our own history. They trivialise and laugh at our days of remembrance. They work every day to make our lives harder and harder. They claim censorship and cancel culture if we talk about them. They sue us if we call them Transphobic. They deny us our dignity and seek to erase us by claiming that who we are, which we cannot change, is a dangerous fiction.

Over a year ago Reddit took appropriate action to address the issue of rising transphobia on their platform under the “Gender Critical” guise, those same groups moved their bigotry to twitter where their hatred has been allowed to flourish unhindered and with renewed energy. Twitter has largely ignored this rising tide, we believe now it is time to put an end to the dog whistle politics and stirring up of a torrent of hatred and abuse towards our small community. All of us believe in free speech, robust debate and an open democracy. This however is just Transphobia repackaged for the mass market and it is effective in convincing the laymen that we are a threat to society.

There are several accounts, growing in number each day and hiding behind faux feminism and gay liberation to promote Transphobia in Britain and across the globe. I would very much like to link them here, however these groups have decided on a joint strategy of extreme litigiousness and I fear reprisal at their hand. This is just further evidence of how sinister these groups have become, so much so that they will attempt to sue anyone who criticises them.

These are Hate groups by any other name, verifiably so and we call upon you to act by ensuring that we are not victim’s of their hatred on your platform where it appears that for sexism, racism, ableism, homophobia and religious prejudice there is one set of rules but for transphobia there is another.

OP posts:
Mockolate · 18/02/2021 09:52

@highame

My solution - ban twitter in the UK, that'd sort it
Assuming you're serious You object to a petition calling for removal of "GC" voices but would be happy to ban Twitter altogether?! Bit contradictory on your stance there. By that reasoning, you'd be happy for the whole of MN to go just because of some of the transphobic posts and posters.
Helmetbymidnight · 18/02/2021 09:54

The transmisogyny on here is horrible

What is transmisogyny now?

and doesn’t really make any sense to me

Uhuh.

they are a marginalized and victimized group.

Trans are a minority - but where is your evidence that transpeople - are more 'marginalised and victimised' than say - girls who aren't allowed an education or have FGM or made into child brides or are raped and abused, or perhaps even the 60,000 women a year murdered by men? don't women count?

To say that the opposite is true is just mad!

That doesn't constitute an argument.

Anyway, I’m seriously considering quitting this site as I just don’t like the transphobia on here.

You don't like what you perceive as transphobia. Ok.

I just don’t get the counter argument that they’re erasing women’s rights or spaces.

You don't get that women's rights and spaces cease to be women's rights and spaces if they include men?

I can’t see it.

We can see you can't see it.

All I can see is progression and that’s obviously being challenged and criticized.

What does that even mean?

Doesn’t change the fact that change and progression are good and necessary, especially when it comes to transwomen.

More nonsense.

We have come a long way as a society in accepting transgender people.

We have come such a way that there has been a 4000% increase in teen girls identifying as trans in 5 years. Do you think that should be looked at - or is that mere progress and therefore good and necessary?

It’s a shame there is so much vitriol launched at them from other women.

Transwomen are not women - and saying so isn't launching vitriol, its just stating facts. The violence and the threats and the attempts to cancel launched at women who've said that (eg JKR, Selina Todd, Rosie Duffield, Suzanne Moore is off the scale - but you know that right?
Presumably you just don't think women matter.

Ereshkigalangcleg · 18/02/2021 10:00

The transmisogyny on here is horrible

There is no such thing as "transmisogyny". Misogyny is prejudice and hate of women and girls, not male people.

Ereshkigalangcleg · 18/02/2021 10:02

I wonder what sort of feminism would be acceptable?

And what sort of "gay liberation"?

Ereshkigalangcleg · 18/02/2021 10:04

So Munroe Bergdorf is one of the most highly respected members of their community? That explains A LOT.

They and LittleBlueToday ought to look into some of the things Bergdorf has said about others.

Kit19 · 18/02/2021 10:10

as always I'm just baffled as to why grown adults are indulging these adolescent tantrums

when I was talking complete uniformed bollocks because Id lived on the planet for all of 20 years, adults would point out to me that I had next to no life experience with which to make judgements and was therefore talking uninformed bollocks. How is it that politicians, the police, charities, government bodies, the NHS, the corporate world are not only not pointing this out but actively applauding this absolute nonsense?

ArabellaScott · 18/02/2021 10:14

Twitter is really the LibDem pit of the internet, isn't it?

Ereshkigalangcleg · 18/02/2021 10:17

I just don’t get the counter argument that they’re erasing women’s rights or spaces. I can’t see it.

What is it exactly that you can't see?

CharlieParley · 18/02/2021 10:23

@NothingTraLaLa

My word. Someone is in desperate need of an editor.
I try not to wear my editor's hat when I read random stuff on the internet, but this type of text just pains me. There's someone who earnestly would like to achieve something, the text is their calling card, and it's got coffee stains and crayon marks all over the front and back, the hamster peed on it this morning and just last night it was accidentally put into the shredder and only removed after the top had already been mangled.

Dear author: Everything your English teacher taught you not to do. Everything. DancelikeEmmaGoldman has listed most of the issues already for you to learn from. So, I'll just add two of my bugbears:

These are Hate groups by any other name, verifiably so

As this is written with a UK focus, it's interesting to note that there is no definition of a hate group under UK law. There isn't even an agreed definition of a hate group outside of a legal context. The UK Government maintains a list of proscribed groups, but those are all involved in terrorism activities or in activities that support terrorism.

There is the concept of hate groups as non-violent extremist groups spreading hate, aligned to violent extremist groups, who serve to drive people into violence against their target.

Clearly no women's rights campaigners and campaign groups meet even this loose definition. It's not an extremist but a mainstream position that sex in humans is binary and immutable. That certain provisions are segregated by sex for good reason. That puberty is not an illness that needs to be prevented.

And "verifiably so". How can you verify that Twitter accounts are a hate group? How can you verify anything as a hate group when there is no agreed upon definition? How can you verify that disagreement with a faith-based belief is hate without straying into blasphemy territory?

and we call upon you to act by ensuring that we are not victim’s of their hatred on your platform where it appears that for sexism, racism, ableism, homophobia and religious prejudice there is one set of rules but for transphobia there is another.

This is just lazy. Twitter does not censor sexism. It has no rules about sexism, because it doesn't include sex as one of the characteristics it deems worthy of protection.

wellthatsunusual · 18/02/2021 10:27

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Winesalot · 18/02/2021 10:29

Twitter is really the LibDem pit of the internet, isn't it?

It is a party that doesn't seem to look very far at some of their candidates and representatives on-line activities, but it seems we are NOT allowed to discuss those inequalities here.

I was taken aback last year to realise that twitter allowed porn on their accounts (they are supposed to have adult content warnings on each tweet that is adult oriented, but they seem to not monitor that at all and are very slow to react if you report it). It does seem that the LDs support these choices in some of their candidates. I am not sure how across the board this is though...

TheBuffster · 18/02/2021 10:30

Something is afoot with free speech and social media.
Had a message on Facebook today that one of my posts was offensive and had been removed.
It was a meme saying if you can't handle me at my worst you don't deserve me at my best. Instead of Marilyn Monroe it featured Hitler, you know like a funny jab at the silly people who justify horrible behaviour to others by posting such drivel. It is very obviously a joke and in no way supportive of Hitler, it's anti Hitler and anti inspirational quote. That's it. That's the joke. But FB decided it worth trawling back through 5 years of stuff to come up with something offensive. Interestingly I am barely on there anymore but did post a news story about the word women and cervical cancer screening recently so go figure.

Anyway, now there's a little sunlight it wouldn't surprise me to see there's going to be a massive GC crackdown across all social media.

bootlebum · 18/02/2021 10:48

Speaking of Twitter did anyone see this: twitter.com/psycholophie/status/1361226492651442177?s=21

NotBadConsidering · 18/02/2021 10:51

medium.com/@rebeccarc/j-k-rowling-and-the-trans-activists-a-story-in-screenshots-78e01dca68d

A quick preliminary search shows a good number of these accounts are still active, including the blue tick one of someone who worked for Elizabeth Warren. Maybe start with banning these people first.

Ereshkigalangcleg · 18/02/2021 10:52

Thread about it here:

Women/girls Being Excluded from Last Resort & Emergency Support Services - Resource Thread www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4166520-Women-girls-Being-Excluded-from-Last-Resort-Emergency-Support-Services-Resource-Thread

Ereshkigalangcleg · 18/02/2021 10:53

My post was to bootlebum

SunsetBeetch · 18/02/2021 11:05

That's ridiculous Buffster but definitely not uncommon on FB or twitter.

SunsetBeetch · 18/02/2021 11:08

[quote bootlebum]Speaking of Twitter did anyone see this: twitter.com/psycholophie/status/1361226492651442177?s=21[/quote]
That's awful!

IvyTwines · 18/02/2021 12:00

Given the history of the celebrity mentioned, whose lucrative contract as the face of a well-known brand was initially cancelled when they made comments on social media seen as racist, I do wonder if the disappearance of so many celebrities from Twitter is now part of the arrangement with the brands, film franchises or whatever when they sign up.

Datun · 18/02/2021 12:11

They are going to have to ban every single journalist, the government, MPs, Liz Truss, the equalities office, all lawyers, jK Rowling and every single free speech advocate, the lot.

And they can be left with a handful of creepy weirdos enabled by clueless teenagers.

Meanwhile, all those other people will start posting elsewhere. A new platform, devoid of creepy weirdos and trantrumning, illiterate teenagers.

Let's have it.

eurochick · 18/02/2021 12:17

The irony! Twitter - that cesspit of misogyny - being the target of this.

titchy · 18/02/2021 12:22

There's a special code? No one told me - I've been posting in plain English.

yourhairiswinterfire · 18/02/2021 12:28

many of them originating in the UK for the purpose of harassing our media, politics, education and healthcare influencers.

What do they mean by harassing healthcare? The Keira Bell case? Do they think 3 high court judges being ''surprised'' by this ''healthcare'' and finding that it is experimental and young children can't consent to it is somehow the fault of Twitter?

Do they mean women asking not to be called ''people who bleed'', ''autistics with a cervix'' and ''black birthing bodies''. Is that the ''harassment'' they're referring to?

Women don't get listened to much by any of those orgs on Twitter. But the word of one TRA (with what was it, 10 followers?) can have a 76 year old woman publicly shamed by a huge company because she knows humans can't change sex.

A while ago, a sports magazine posted one of their issues to Twitter that featured their first transwoman model, who looked great. Cue loads of MEN posting ACTUAL transphobic shit on the timeline, GIFS of Jim Carrey using a toilet plunger on his face (from Ace Ventura when he realises the woman he kissed was a man in disguise) GIFS of projectile vomiting, they were using transphobic slurs. Know what treatment these men got? None. The same pitchfork mob that turn up to police women politely talking about our issues said absolutely jack shit to the actual transphobes. Because the transphobes were men.

They don't seem to have a problem with actual transphobic men. They have a problem with women and groups that centre women being allowed a platform to organise and defend their own rights. Gynophobes.

andyoldlabour · 18/02/2021 12:38

Molesmokes - post of the day IMHO.
As for MB being one of the most respected members of the community? Well, the bar is at a pretty low level right there.

JackNicholson · 18/02/2021 13:11

"All of us believe in free speech, robust debate and an open democracy."

And then the writers of this letter complain (twice) about being "laughed at"?

This is excellent comedy, and I'm afraid that I, for one, am going to laugh...